Director Nan's joyless 'Bendera' a misfire

Joko E.H. Anwar, Contributor, The Jakarta Post

On paper, Bendera (The Flag) -- director Nan's follow-up to art- house Pasir Berbisik (Whispering Sands) -- sounds like very interesting material for a movie.

Two school kids from a slum are entrusted by their teacher to bring home the school's national flag on Saturday to be washed before being raised on Monday in a school ceremony.

Between Saturday and the ceremony, the kids encounter so many obstacles to do the seemingly easy task as they have to go through some adventures to deliver the flag.

Bendera promises to be an entertaining family film as the director herself has said over and over again the movie is intended for children and adults alike. The film press kit also stresses that the movie is meant to be a realist film.

Unfortunately, the movie is a misfire in both categories.

Like in neorealist films, children also become the focus here.

The cinematography is beautiful and it successfully captures the environment where the film's subjects live. However, it never captures the spirit of its characters.

The children's world is joyless and never even slightly involving due to the script which is so weak actors seem to be ad-libbing their lines all the time.

The story seems forced and the motivations of its characters are often not believable (such as how can the two kids take the wrong flag from their teacher's desk which initiates the whole problem).

As a result, the film already loses its credibility before reaching the end of its first reel.

Despite its short running time, you will want the film to be over sooner.

It is obvious that writer/producer/director Nan tried to pad the film which might have worked a little better in half of its current running time.

There is a scene at a train station where the kids wander around until an entire song played in the background finishes, thus making the movie seems like a music video.

The movie which is scheduled to open next week is set by the filmmaker to compete with Hollywood's imports for children including Disney's delightful animated feature Lilo and Stitch and big screen adaptation of Scooby Doo.

Unfortunately, it is too naive to hope that Bendera will win the children over.

The movie also fails to pass the test as a realist film. The acting department is never convincing and the female child actor seems to desperately need more sure-handed direction.

One fatal flaw in the film's effort to be a realist film is that it uses unnecessary symbols which makes itself unrealistic.

The film's lead characters often substitute their words with whistles while talking to each other. In the beginning, it is cute, until it turns annoying.

The film's audio is also noisy -- make that very noisy -- which make it more irritating than realistic.

Bendera is the third film produced under the I-Sinema flag, a self-proclaimed movement which was founded by young filmmakers including Riri Riza, Enison Sinaro, and Rizal Mantovani.

The group's first effort is the embarrassingly bad, poetic- wannabe Sebuah Pertanyaan untuk Cinta (A Question to Love) which was directed by Enison in 2000. The movie was only screened in several local film festivals and was never released due to obvious reasons.

The group finally has a great film as their second outing, Eliana, Eliana which is scheduled to hit theaters this week. The movie which was directed by Riri Riza has already won the hearts of many film reviewers for its involving and touching storytelling.

Eliana, Eliana is also the first local film which after a long time, successfully deals with adult problems since it has real substance and a story to tell.

Unfortunately we cannot say the same about Nan's Bendera which cost about Rp 700 million to make, a figure which is pretty huge for a locally made film shot in digital video.

Director Nan won an award for the most promising young director at the Asia Pacific Film Festival this year. However, it seems that we will have to wait a little longer to see the director fulfill the title which I am sure in time she will.

While watching Bendera, I really wanted the movie to work since like all of us, we want our local film industry to have a firmer stand.

I also do not doubt the filmmaker's good intention to make a film which is enjoyable and at the same time filled with messages about responsibility, the need for unity, and blah... blah... blah. However, I just can figure out why the outing seems so pretentious.

Bendera (The Flag), ** out of four stars; Drama/Adventure, 75 minutes; Starring Hafidz Khoir, Nuansa Jawadwipa, Indah R. Soeprapto; Directed by Nan Achnas; An I-Sinema Production; In Bahasa Indonesia with no subtitles (but there is not much dialog anyway)